Gollum Posted July 22, 2020 Posted July 22, 2020 Shantharama, a BA graduate, is the first degree holder in Siddi community Quote After the surprise nominations to the Rajya Sabha, where party workers were preferred to senior leaders, the BJP has once again surprised all by its choice of candidates to the 75-member legislative council. Shantharama Siddi (55), a BA Economics graduate is the first degree holder in Siddi community, an ethnic group believed to be descendants of Bantu people of East Africa who were brought to India as indentured slaves. The community settled across Uttara Kannada, Belagavi and Dharwad districts in the state some 400 years ago. Shantharama is a RSS worker, who has been serving the Vanavasi Kalyana Karnataka (VKK) since 1989. He has served as a member of the Western Ghats Taskforce constituted by the Karnataka government. LINK
diga Posted July 23, 2020 Posted July 23, 2020 (edited) Though BJP has rewarded an RSS activist, the knack of sangh in elevating unknown faces in politics & giving them a voice is appreciable... last year they chose a member of savita samaj(barber community in Karnataka) to Rajya Sabha inspite of severe lobbying by dissidents Edited July 23, 2020 by diga coffee_rules 1
Gollum Posted July 23, 2020 Author Posted July 23, 2020 @Stradlater there are Siddis in Karnataka as well!!!
Stradlater Posted July 23, 2020 Posted July 23, 2020 4 hours ago, Gollum said: @Stradlater there are Siddis in Karnataka as well!!! Yes there are quite a few of them there actually. In the medieval period they were a dominant player in the Deccani politics and vied alongside Persians/Afghans/Marathas for influence in the Bahamani court and later under their successor states. Nobles such as Malik Ambar immortalized their name in their struggle against Mughals when Ahmednagar was annexed by the former. Such was their influence that Siddis of Janjira regularly proved to be troublesome for Shivaji who had to construct a proper navy to deal with the menace. Gollum 1
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